This is today’s statement issued by the only protective organisation in Northern Ireland that helps anglers and fish alike

This is today’s statement issued by the only protective organisation in Northern Ireland that helps anglers and fish alike. Never look to the government, though pay your money to them.

 Lough Neagh: Blue-green algae could pose serious health risks

ULSTER ANGLING FEDERATION STATEMENT of Response

The results of this research from Dr Neil Reid, are certainly concerning but not surprising either. They clearly outline where the problems lie, based on the bacteria identified, which significantly lean towards agriculture and wastewater treatment. These highlight years of underinvestment in infrastructure and development of poor policy, planning and enforcement.

What does it mean for angling?

For a start, Lough Neagh has many important inflow rivers that facilitate angling and enhance physical and mental wellbeing of many across the province.

The main rivers that flow into the system have a number of angling clubs along their catchment:

Six Mile Water (which is the location of one of Dr Reid’s sample points), Maine, Moyola, Blackwater, Ballinderry, Crumlin, Glenavy and Upper Bann.

There are clubs on most of these rivers but we cannot forget other key sites for angling such as Toome Canal, Lough Beg, Carnroe, Movanagher and Bann Estuary which are located through the course of the River Bann which consists entirely of Lough Neagh Water.

We are also mindful that the endangered Atlantic Salmon journey upstream into the Lough Neagh System through this water.

These blooms impact accessibility by presenting a health risk for anglers and recreational users of the Lough and its rivers and although the department has taken time to address these questions previously, questions still remain within sections of the angling community about safety around fishing, fish handling and fish consumption. So there is a significant impact on some of our prime angling within the province in terms of health and safety, environmental impact, tourism, accessibility and physical and mental wellbeing of participants.

Chironomid crashes

As anglers and locals, we are witnessing a massive visible crash in the chironomids or the Lough Neagh midge as they are fondly known.

There would have been clouds of them swirling around the lough or caked on cars and properties every summer and the locals became accustomed to them. These numbers appear to have visibly declined. These are crucial at various stages of their life cycle for fish species, migratory brown trout (dollaghan), or Lough Neagh Pollan and indeed many of the migratory wildfowl that visit the Lough from other countries, every year. We all know what happens if you remove a significant food source from any food chain.

Other research

There have been different forms of research carried out on the impact on brown trout on a similar bloom in Loch Levin in Scotland by Dr Hamish Rodger. That research focussed on a bloom not too dissimilar from what we are experiencing but saw drops of dissolved oxygen and an increase in pH of the water. As well as the potential for oxygen depletion in marine environments there was some evidence that brown trout had issues with their liver necrosis and gill irritation through physical and toxic effects which can come through direct ingestion or absorption of toxins. This mirrored other research with species such as Rainbow Trout and carp. But that research did recommend further investigation. But it does suggest a potential impact on angling.

What is the Angling Community doing about it?

Anglers have taken the initiative to be part of the solution and not the problem. But we can only do so much. Many have volunteered countless hours with pollution monitoring and habitat enhancement projects. The Antrim and District Angling Association and Six Mile Water Trust have already adopted many of the solutions identified by Dr Reid, by working directly with landowners and the authorities to identify problems before they become a major issue with invertebrate monitoring, working with these same landowners and building developers to create nature-based buffer strips and fencing off areas of riverbank from livestock.

This also includes working with authorities to identify problematic pollution points and misconnections. A good example is the Yellow Fish campaign that was rolled out upriver with NIEA officers, whereby some drains were painted Yellow to highlight that it had a direct connection with the rivers and ensure a deterrent for people to dispose of any substances down drains. They are not the only club in the Lough Neagh system doing similar with almost all of the clubs, regardless of size, taking similar actions to protect the rivers into our Lough.

What is needed?

Dr Reid’s solutions should be encouraged and certainly in hand with the Lough Neagh Action Plan we welcome the efforts to resolve this. However, these do not come cheaply.

Agriculture

It requires years of education, further research and a significant level of investment into the agriculture sector. The Rephokus Phosphorus project carried out in recent years, identified that there were over 7300 tonnes of excess phosphorus in NI Soils annually and Soil Phosphorus Application in NI is almost 20% higher than crops currently require, so adequate resource needs to be redirected to address these issues and assist the farming community where possible.

NI Water infrastructure

We need significant financial investment into the current NI Water infrastructure and when we asked the question, we were told that at least £11billion pounds were required to just bring NI Water assets up to UK Compliance Standards and that it would be a lot more again for other necessary remedial works.

Justice and Legal System

We need stronger enforcement on polluters. Polluters currently pay paltry fines that are a lot less than the cost to dispose of waste. So the Justice and legal system needs to be reviewed to ensure that there is a deterrent to deposit into the waterways that go into the Lough

KPIs and Target setting

We need to see target setting for progress monitoring from departments. We also need them to be adequately resourced to do so, especially given that only 82 of 2440 of NI Water CSO discharges are monitored.

Current NI Planning System

The planning system should also be reviewed. There’s a lot of responsibility put on local councils who are approving large scale housing developments along the watercourses. These have led to existing poor infrastructure becoming overloaded and becoming problematic to our waterways in terms of CSOs, surface run off, Wastewater treatment and misconnections.

Conclusion

The solutions are right there, but the level of financial investment, collaboration, accountability, policy, transparency and governance isn’t just there yet to ensure delivery. We are not confident that we will see a perfect end result in our lifetime. It will take time. The Federation is actively trying to work with all relevant stakeholders to try and assist and improve the situation going forward.

Ulster Angling Federation